Wyoming rancher negotiated with fugitive

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Jim Kremers knew the fugitive had arrived as soon as he heard the dogs barking.

Sure enough, the man accused of killing a farmer and wounding two officers stepped into the glow of a yard light behind Kremers' ranch house near Lusk, 120 miles north of Cheyenne.

The stranger was armed with a rifle and a pistol.

"We went for cover as quick as we could, expecting the worst," Kremers said yesterday.

The man's name was Charles Moses. The Texas survivalist had allegedly spent the previous three days on the run, and when he was spotted near Lusk, deputies had warned Kremers and other area ranchers about him.

Kremers and his son, Justin, lay low for a few minutes. Then the elder Kremers told his son to go around the house and flank the visitor with their own rifle.

With Justin Kremers' gun trained on the fugitive, Jim Kremers persuaded Moses to put his rifle down. But Moses still had a pistol, and negotiations with the wet, muddy stranger had just begun.

"He said, `I am another God-fearing person and if I were going to shoot you, I would have already shot you,' " Jim Kremers said. "I said, `I know.' "

Jim Kremers and Moses, the subject of an intense manhunt encompassing two states and more than 200 miles, began to talk.

The final agreement: Justin Kremers would put down the rifle if Moses put down his pistol. After a few more minutes of discussion, the deal was struck.

"The man made three or four steps toward me and engulfed me in an embrace and cried continuously for four or five minutes, I suppose," Jim Kremers said.

Father and son invited Moses inside, fed him hot dogs and beans and let him call his parents.

With Moses occupied, they went back outside and hid the weapons, then called the police. Not long after, deputies sneaked in, handcuffing Moses before the fugitive realized what was happening.

"There was no undue force, there was no real wrestling or scuffling about it," Jim Kremers said. "It was over and done with."

Moses limped into federal court yesterday after spending the night in a hospital with a shoulder wound.

A hearing was set for tomorrow to determine whether Moses will be returned to Nebraska, where he is accused of killing farmer Robert Sedlacek and wounding two law-enforcement officers - one in the abdomen and the other in the hand.

The manhunt began Saturday when a Lincoln County, Neb., deputy tried to arrest Moses on Texas charges of possessing explosives, violating probation and evading arrest. Moses escaped in his truck after a shootout with police.

Two days later, Sedlacek was found shot to death. A first-degree murder warrant was then issued for Moses, who police believe killed Sedlacek for his pickup truck.